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I am the business editor of the Statesboro Herald, and I am a school psychologist with the Bulloch County Board of Education. The mass murder of school children and school personnel in Newtown, Connecticut this past Friday not only made me physically ill, it reminded me of the almost impossible charge that those working for schools today face.

It is the season of wonder, after all. And so, I have been wondering: wondering how long it takes to decorate that huge tree at Rockefeller Center; wondering how a person is supposed to learn all four verses of any particular Christmas carol now that school music programs are "holiday" performances; wondering how our little planet looks from the satellite that takes the photos for Google Earth when all the houses in all the cities and towns across America have their Christmas lights turned on.

Q: Our 7-year-old has always been a great, respectful, funny little kid. However, recently he started lying and become a little sneaky. We punished him by taking his television privilege away and making him write apology letters as well as apologizing over the phone to everyone he has lied to.

Every year, I write about unusual Christmas gift ideas. I have to admit, the timing seems pretty good to suggest this one - naming opportunities at Georgia Southern University's planned Football Operations Center.

In its Aug. 5, 1939, paper, the Bulloch Herald reported on a bid by the Georgia Teachers College to gain approval to offer an aviation course. Earlier in 1939, the college was designated as a possible training center for aviation students by the Civil Aeronautics Authority in Washington, D.C.

For you barbeque aficionados, there is a new kiddo on the block. Curtis Starling and his daughter Christy have opened Hwy 67 BBQ adjacent to the Highway 67 Antique Mall (near the intersection of Highway 67 and I-16).

The first real air mail service in the United States was carried out, believe it or not, by a balloon. On Jan. 9, 1793, our nation's first president, George Washington, sent a private letter from his office in Philadelphia to be carried to a personal friend in Deptford, N.J.

Whenever I talk on the subject of self-esteem - how the research strongly suggests that people with high regard for themselves have correspondingly low regard for others and that high self-esteem is highly associated with antisocial behavior like bullying - people become understandably perplexed. After all, the notion that a state of high self-esteem is desirable has become as American as mom and apple pie. The inevitable response: "But John, I want my child to possess self-confidence."

Once a month, Lily takes heartworm medicine. It is a chewy, brown rectangle that, now that I think of it, bears a passing resemblance to the chewy, brown rectangle of calcium that I take every morning.

The last month of the year 2012 is upon us, with only a handful of shopping days left until Christmas. Use your time wisely to make quality memories this month, not crazy ones. Don't let the frenzy of decorating, baking and shopping steal the joy of the season. Make time for friends and family, hot chocolate in front of the fire, carols and mistletoe kisses, and donations of goodwill to someone in need. Celebrate the season with your own special traditions, and sprinkle in a few of the wacky, but true, holidays below.

The "Rural Electrification of America" became the watchword of the mid-1930s as part of the New Deal. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electric Administration at his summer White House in Warm Springs, Ga.

One of the most important things we can think about concerning God is this: Can we know the Bible is the word of God? Some - many? - might ask, "Why is this so important? Can't we just accept by faith that the Bible is from God?" While we do accept it "by faith," that faith must be based on evidence, or it isn't really faith; it is nothing more than opinion. That's the view on which atheists and agnostics insist, adding that one opinion is as good as another, so we can't really have any real confidence ...